Council favors traffic circles for Wildwood Drive area

Speed humps, bumps and roundabouts dominate Monday meeting

The City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to traffic-calming measures in the Wildood Drive area of Ward 6 despite arguments from critics who said the proposed traffic circles would cost too much and yield insufficient results.

To reduce dangerously speedy cut-through traffic down the residential side streets adjacent to the New Hampshire Avenue corridor and University Boulevard, resident organizations including the New Hampshire Gardens Citizen's Association supported adding three traffic circles and a speed bump to the neighborhood. Final approval could come next week.

Detractors, including long-time resident Elizabeth Kozel, voiced the opinion that, especially in light of recent budget cuts, the circles would not be affordable or effective.

"This is a whopping expense in hard economic times," Kozel said during a public hearing Monday night. "If you look at Wildwood Drive, it is the made-to-order cut-through for Maryland Route 650, and it always has been. … I don't think traffic circles are the way to do it, I'm not convinced."

Just last week Mayor Bruce Williams lamented the city's loss of $577,000 because of Gov. Martin O'Malley's $400 million-plus state budget cuts last month, a significant drop that will only deepen after Thursday's announcement of another $283 million state budget shortfall that will likely lead to more cuts to the city's share of tax revenue.

Despite these losses, coupled with the potential price tags for traffic circle installations — estimates at the meeting reached up to $44,000 per circle — City Manager Barbara Burns Matthews and City Planner Ilona Blanchard assured the council that the work would be paid for out of the city's new $100,000 speed camera fund, the money from which must be spent on traffic measures or public safety, they said.

"[The fund is] intended for things such as traffic calming, sidewalks, it could be used to pay for some actual police salaries as long as the activities that they're engaged in is either the direct administration or implementation of the program, for instance, speed enforcement programs," Matthews said.

The council shared the optimism of those who support the traffic circles, dismissing suggestions made by critics including Barrie Howard, who suggested placing more stop signs — which only cost $350 each — at intersections in the neighborhood.

Councilwoman Donna Victoria (Ward 6) argued that existing stop signs in the area are routinely ignored by cut-through drivers, and the city would end up spending more money paying for police officers to monitor the intersections.

"We can have the police there sometimes but there's an ongoing cost to that," she said, adding that traffic circles do not give drivers the option to speed through them. "This is a minimum to at least keep people slowing down and [keep them] more conscious of the fact that people live here."

Because of the volume of testimony at the public hearing, Williams and the council sped through most of the remainder of the meeting, quickly approving a list of 18 residents to the new Task Force on Environmental Action and passing a resolution supporting the city's participation in National Play Day on Saturday.

The question of traffic measures again came up during one of the council's worksessions to wrap up the meeting; this time for a raised crosswalk that would allow residents to more safely cross Westmoreland Avenue to and from the playground behind the Gazebo at Westmoreland and Carroll avenues.

While the council looked favorably on the proposal, made by the city engineer and presented by Public Works Director Daryl Braithwaite, the city could stand to lose a single metered parking space. Due to the increased amount of asphalt needed for a raised crosswalk, the project would also cost about $3,000 compared to $1,500 for a replacement speed bump, Braithwaite said.

Councilman Josh Wright (Ward 1) suggested Braithwaite increase her outreach to local businesses that might be affected by the lost parking space — including the nearby Tranquil Soul boutique and the Still Point Spa and Wellness Center — before the council moved to approve the crosswalk.